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Wednesday, August 06, 2014

"Smart lens" technology

I have a pretty strong corrective lens prescription. I have astigmatism in my left eye which is
not corrected very well by glasses, but toric contact lenses do a pretty good
job since they are weighted and return to proper position with every
blink. With my prescription I am
becoming more and more limited in what corrective lenses can do for me as I
become more and more nearsighted.
As I get older, my eyes are starting to change less as the muscles
in my eye begin to weaken, but I have often wondered, "What will I do if my eyes
move beyond the realm of what can be corrected with current lens technology? "

A prototype smart lens.

Credit: Novartis

Enter Google X and their scifi problem solvers. They have designed “smart lens” technology that works to incorporate sensors, microchips,
and other electronics into contact lenses.
Novartis is
licensing this technology with a couple ideas in mind. One possible use is the treatment of the loss of the eye’s ability to focus on
close objects (presbyopia). Refractive
surgery would likely need to be combined with the lens, but together they could
possibly return the eye’s natural autofocus ability. This seems like just the
beginning of what a lens like this could do to correct vision. Who knows, maybe
one day I will benefit from this early work with “smart lenses”.

Another really impressive idea is using the “smart lens” to
measure glucose levels in the eye fluid of people with diabetes. People today must
continuously draw their blood to measure glucose levels, but maybe one day
their “smart lens” would wirelessly send their glucose level to their phone. No
fingerpicks. Pretty neat idea if they can get it to work as reliably as a blood
glucose meter.

Maybe Google X can develop a cheap sensor for Chemists Without Borders that would wirelessly
send water contaminant data to an analyst halfway across the world…you never
know…horseless wagons were futuristic long ago.

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